


Freeze!

by minuseven



Series: 10 different lives (powers) Taylor could have had [4]
Category: Worm (Web Serial Novel)
Genre: Gen, altpower!Taylor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-10-01
Packaged: 2018-02-15 03:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2214654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minuseven/pseuds/minuseven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well, it wasn't like things had to always be easy... But she'd rather not have Lung on her tail, thank you very much! </p><p>Power: Body Immobilization</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One!

I dialed.

“Emergency? I’d like a special line. Independent, Arrest. Well, ... No, I can't hold actually. I've got Lung here and... Yeah, yes, that Arrest. That's right. Ye- Four minutes maybe five. Sure. ... Rockwell Street... Right, thank you.”

I pushed the hang up button on my phone, that really wasn’t mine at all, and looked at my captive. Lung glared at me behind his metal mask, so intensely his eyes almost seemed to shine. I had no doubt that he was trying to burn me to cinders by looks alone and, had he been able to, I would already be ashes on the wind.

But he couldn't. Not while under my power. He'd been, if you'll pardon the pun, arrested. He wasn't going anywhere, locked in place as he was. I'd never been the kind of kid who goes right up to the edge of the safety perimeter on the zoo to stick my tongue at the lions, but right now I irrationally felt like going right up to Lung's mask and going na-nana-na-naa! I wasn't going to least of all because I had no idea, nor any desire to find out, about Lung’s control over his pyrokinesis even while under my power. But I still felt like it. It had to be the excitement.

My first cape arrest. Lung. I’d brought in a lot of unpowered gang members before. I’d made myself a bit of a name like that too, managing to bring in every member of an Empire versus Coil shoot-out at once. But normal guys were one thing. Capes were at a whole different level. I bit the inside of my cheek to not giggle. It wouldn't be in character for the independent hero Arrest.

Instead of taunting the dragon or laughing, I returned the surprisingly good cellphone to its owner, dropping it into his pocket. Then I patted the gangbanger on his shoulder, thanking him silently, and addressed my audience. It wasn't like they were going anywhere after all. "The Protectorate will be here any minute now." I smiled brightly under my police cap-slash-mask and tipped it down. “Gentlemen.” I really hoped they did hurry up. I didn't want to have to let Lung go, but I wanted even less to be around when my power dropped. Lung ramped up in power the longer he fought and I had no idea if being under the effect of my power counted as a fight or not.

Well, it wasn't like I was going to risk it either way. I turned the corner into a very narrow alley, the very same I’d used to approach this gathering, and groped around for the fire escape. There was a limit to how far I could get before my targets unfroze. So I went up. I should be able to see everything from the rooftop and also be out of the way if the Protectorate was too late. Enough to recharge, at least. I avoided the broken glass littering the cement roof of the tenement and sat on the edge, legs dangling above the frozen criminals under me. Already I was feeling impatient, swinging a leg at each second's count.

Where was the Protectorate? I should be seeing or, at least, hearing some sign of their arrival.

As if to answer my question, a red blur stopped a few feet away from the gang member furthest away. More than a blur, it was a cloud. Like somebody had taken the lines that composed a person and multiplied them over and over, always a little bit off position. Velocity. I waved down at him and no more than three seconds later, the hero was stopping by my side.

"Arrest. How's the situation?" He spoke carefully, breathing deeply but irregularly. He was trying to hide how much he was panting. Velocity was a short, lean man, built like a runner. His costume was a very simple skintight suit, painted like a racing car. He barely even had a utility belt.

I saluted only half-mocking. "Sir. I've got Lung and two dozen of his flunkies all but gift wrapped for you." I recalled what I'd been able to gleam from the brute's little speech. "They were going to attack, kill, some other rival group. Called them the kids, children... I ambushed them. I've got them frozen for about three minutes, it won't last much longer." I really needed to buy a good, durable watch.

Velocity nodded. "Understood. I have with me a special sedative from Armsmaster tailored just for Lung. You're the only one that can interact with them while they're frozen, correct?"

I shrugged. It was a bit more complicated than that. "They don't resist when I'm the one moving them. But that's not going to work on Lung until I let him go."

Velocity snaps his head towards me with a blur. "You're sure?"

"Drugs don't work on people while my power is in effect." I had saved a guy from an overdose once. Accidentally yes, but I had.

"Can't risk it..." The superhero in red muttered. "Damn. We'll have to do it the hard way then."

I gulped and rose to my feet. "And we'll have to do it quickly," A mental strain of a sort started, like a rope stretched thin starting to fray. I knew from experience that the longer it lasted the bigger my headache would be, and that was if didn't let the rope actually break. "My power's gone into countdown."


	2. Two!

The very air stilled. Velocity and I shared a look behind our masks. Fighting the leader of the ABB was right up there with jumping off the fourth floor on the suicidal department, but we couldn't just let him go free. There wasn't going to be an opportunity as good as this one in who knew how long.

If Lung didn't outright kill us tonight anyway.

The hero went straight to business. "The normies. Can you tie them up in time?"

"It'll cut down on the total time I can still hold everyone." I answered grimly.

Velocity nodded and blurred. Then he was extending a small canister towards me, three inches long and not over one in width. I hadn't even seen him pick it up. "This is the sedative. Twist the red metal cap and the needles will pop up. Go down and jam it in Lung. Back of the neck. Then get as clear as you can. I'm informing HQ before going down."

I took the offered salvation, noting the red part, and nodded. "Sir."

As I started jumping down the fire escape stairs two by two, I still had enough time to hear him. "Console, this is Velocity..." I could guess what the plan was. Prep Lung for takedown, drop my power, have the mover take care of the ABB goons and pray the sedative worked on time. Well, Armsmaster was the best tinker in the state, a guy that went against Endbringers with only the gear he built. I could put a little faith in his work.

I jumped down and hit the ground. The very same moment, I was already sprinting towards Lung. I made sure to approach from behind, keeping myself as much as I could in his blind spot. Up close, the leader of the ABB was even more intimidating. Six feet tall at least, shirtless and built like a bull, wearing only jeans and an ornate dragon-shaped metal mask that let cunning black eyes shine in its depths. Countless dragon tattoos were etched on his bare back and arms and they all seemed to be glaring fiery death at me.

I spared just a moment to lament my lack of a good costume. My jeans were elastic and good for movement, my boots rubber-soled for stealth and overall the blues and blacks of my outfit had a good aesthetic, letting me pull the hero cop look well, but…. But I was not any more durable than a normal cop and those guys usually left the serious fights for the PRT and their chainmails and foam dispensers. Being inches away from a very dangerous brute suddenly brought all those facts into the forefront of my mind. Funny how that works.

I twisted the red cap like Velocity had told me, keeping my hands away from the end of the cylinder, and a trio of needles sprang out. They were two inches long and looked more like blades than needles. To penetrate Lung’s scaly hide, probably. As fast as I could, I reached over Lung’s shoulder and jabbed them on the muscle connecting it to the neck. I never remembered the name of that muscle… A small hiss told me the payload had been delivered.

And then I ran away. I circled around a building, feeling the mental rope stretch and stretch. I had to get into a good position. Somewhere I could see the fight and intervene, but not be seen. It also had to be a place where Lung and his cronies couldn’t guess I was. They were still seeing, paralyzed or not. I settled for climbing another set of fire escape stairs, putting myself on a rooftop opposite to where I had been. I panted. I needed to get into better shape.

"How long do we have?"

I jumped. "Fuck!" Velocity was standing right next to me on the roof. I hadn't even seen his telltale blur. "Please don't do that again."

He smiled and I noticed he was measuring his breathing, heavy as it was. Did his power tire him out? He took a couple of seconds to answer me. "Sorry. Shouldn't have. How long?"

"A minute or less. But I wouldn't want to push the limit, it makes it harder to use afterwards." A steady discomfort had been building up, lessened only by the adrenaline running through my veins.

"Right." He took a deep breath. "See that corner? As soon as you see me there, give it a ten-count and let them go. Roger that?"

"Yes sir."

He nodded, smiling, and blurred away. This time I could trace out the path he took, jumping off from the roof and moving covertly to circle the tenement whose corner he had indicated. I readied myself. Velocity had made it. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four...

Three, two, one...

I released my power. Before anyone had time to react, Lung roared. The fire that my power had to have been suppressing exploded outwards, burning several of the goons closest to him. They went down screaming in agony. Trash ignited and the stone of the tenement whose rooftop I had been on blackened. Fuck. Had the tranquilizer not worked? Even with Velocity on my side and more heroes incoming, this was a very bad situation to be in. Very, very bad. Lung was going to roast me over a fire pit. Alive. Like an elastic band, my power had snapped back in my head, a nasty spike of pain going right through the center of my brain. I needed a bit more time before I could use my power with any sort of precision. Time I might not have.

But after that the fire started sputtering. The initial wave of flames passed, I could see Lung fall to his knees, hands going to the half-melted cannister on his neck. I couldn't tell at this distance, but I thought I could see scales trying to break out from under his skin and fail.

Then Velocity stepped in. As a red blur, the hero wove in and out of the gang members still on their feet. He stopped behind one and took in down with some sort of judo throw, kicking his gun, and then he was already on top of another, punching him twenty times a second. Every fearful thought of mine dispersed. This was how professional heroes fought.

Hell yes.


	3. Chapter 3

The thing about Velocity zipping around kicking ass was that it messed with my power. I couldn't get a lock on his position, so I couldn't exclude him from the group of people I was trying to freeze. Maybe it was his powers messing with mine, maybe it was just the sheer speed he was going at, but I couldn't just freeze a hero along with the criminals. So I sighed and headed back to the stairs.

I was not going to be a helpless bystander.

My feet at street level, I reached behind me and grabbed my baton. Standard police equipment I got in a vaguely shady store at my dad’s recommendation. My other hand zipped open the pouch tied to my belt. It was full of zip-ties, easy to access.

A thug was running away from the scene, heading towards me. I saw Velocity pause just a second, locking eyes with me. Then he was on the move again, leaving him to me. I hid the baton behind me. The guy, I'd wager chinese, tried to feint past me. I swung my weapon in a wide arc, catching him full on the nose. Bullseye. He fell down with a scream, clutching his face. With a practiced movement, I drew a pepper spray and gave him a fully deserved dose of pain. Then I hit him again, to quiet him down, and zipped his hands together. I didn't want to lose any more time on him, so I didn't restraint his legs.

Well, it wasn't like he was going anywhere in this state. And I didn't want to get kicked in the face.

The rest of the gangbangers fell with similar ease. I started with the ones Velocity had incapacitated, needing to make my point clear a fair number of times. Namely, they were going to jail whether they wanted to or not, so they should just stop struggling. The average intelligence of a gang member must be pretty low, because they just didn't seem to get that into their heads. I did my civic duty and used my baton to help hammer it in. I worked from the outside in, trusting the sanctioned hero to cover my back. More than once, I heard somebody behind me get a beating. The reason why I worked from the farthest ones to the ones closer to Lung was twofold. To keep anybody from running and to delay having to deal with the ones Lung had burned.

I decided I hated the smell.

I also did not want to be close to where sleeping dragons laid. Not that I didn't trust Armsmaster's work. I just didn't want to accidentally poke a dragon.

I was gingerly restraining a man with a face covered in shiny burns when I heard the sound. It was a very subtle sound and I only recognized it because I’d been exposed to it before. It almost sounded like one of those new washing machines running in the background. Ours was old and made a racket I could hear from my room, occasionally jumping and hitting the wall. This sounded like every cylinder was a well-oiled piece of cutting edge technology, synchronized to the picosecond. I suppose it was, in a way. But I wouldn’t exactly call Armsmaster’s motorcycle a laundromat….

I stood up and, rather uselessly, dusted myself down. There was garbage and soot sticking to my pants. I’d just captured Lung… Lung! But still the prospect of talking to Armsmaster in this state made me feel self-conscious.

And as certain as a clock, the leader of the local Protectorate pulled into the street on his signature motorcycle. As he dismounted, he assessed the scene with a single look. Without pausing to even look into our direction, he strode up to Lung and jabbed the but of his Halberd into him. There was the snap-hiss of something mechanical moving and he stepped back, visibly relaxed compared to before.

Well, that had been pretty rude. On the other hand, fire-breathing dragon, so it evened out.

Seemingly satisfied with the way Lung was sedated, Armsmaster strode back towards us. "Reinforcements will be here soon. Velocity, " he addressed the speedster catching his breath by my side, "check the perimeter. Don't let anyone escape."

"Sir." Velocity snapped a twitchy salute and was gone in a red blur.

Armsmaster turned to me then. "Arrest. Would you mind if we spoke somewhere a little more quiet?" He gestured covertly at the gangsters tied up on the ground.

"Not at all." I didn't fancy these guys listening in either.

We moved a little further up the street before stopping. Far away enough that we couldn't be overheard but close enough to keep an eye on the big prize of the night. "First of all," started Armsmaster, "I'd like to commend you on the excellent job you did tonight. " Oh, damn, now I was blushing. I really hoped his sensors couldn't detect that. "But we'll get to that later. What happened here?"

Right, statement first. "Well, I was just following a pair of ABB members, normal night, see if they did something illegal or led me to a bigger group." Did you know you can't arrest obvious gang members if they aren't actually committing a crime? "And I hit jackpot. Huge meeting, at least twenty guys and more joining by the minute. I hid, waited and five minutes later, give or take, Lung steps out from that house." I pointed to a tea shop, now with its windows blackened. Probably an ABB front, now that I had time to think about it. "He started a speech, rallying the troops. I was too far away to hear what he was saying exactly, so I got closer. Lung's talking about 'the kids', and how they should just shoot, no hesitation. Killing children...." I scowled. "Well, that's when I stepped in. The gang was all there so I froze them all in one go. Then I called you guys and waited."

Armsmaster nodded. "I see. These kids... did Lung used any other term? Say anything else about them?"

"Called one of them the little bitch, or something like that. Nothing that jumped out to me. Is something the matter?" I questioned.

The Tinker rubbed his chin. "It's not Lung's M.O. to go around killing children. Or teens. There must have been a reason. He would have to be angry. Personally offended, maybe. Have you heard anything recently?" He asked me.

"Hm...." Armsmaster made sense. Lung wasn't known for mindless slaughter. Or slaughter at all. And against kids, that's what it would be, a slaughter. Big, dangerous fights, occasional executions, posturing? That kind of thing you heard about the leader of the ABB. Lung was the kind of parahuman that mainly showed up to intimidate. Him and twenty plus armed men? I had no idea of what would warrant that beyond a full blown fight with the Empire. To top it all, I was pretty new at the scene. I didn't have contacts or anything like that. Finally I shrugged. "Nothing. I don't know. Maybe he was talking about the Empire, using a codename? This is a hell of a force...."

We both took a moment to stare at the beaten and swearing gangsters on the ground. "We'll interrogate them, find out what was really going on tonight." Said Armsmaster. "In the meanwhile, how do you want to be associated with this? It was a joint operation, but taking in Lung is a whole new level from what you've been doing. It will call a lot of attention to you. And the ABB has a new member, a dangerous Tinker. We can omit your name, if you want."

"Oh yeah, her." I grimaced. Bakuda was dangerous alright. Specializing in bombs, with a terrorist streak on top, of all things. She'd been confirmed as a new member a week ago or so and I'd looked her up. I could believe the Cornwell Bomber being one vengeful bitch. I resisted the urge to rub my temples on frustration. "Fuck. Wouldn't matter. I was pretty loud about who I was. There's no way you could hide my involvement anyway." I waved my hand at the tenements and shops surrounding us. It might look like we were alone, but we were really not. And I didn't really want to get my accomplishments covered up, if I had to be perfectly honest. "Might as well get the good publicity with the bad. Don't hold back on my account."

I had made Lung's capture possible. I had fought gangsters and saved kids. I had been a part of this. I wouldn't have managed it alone, sure, but I had been fucking instrumental.

"Very well." Armsmaster assented. "Just remember the Wards are always an option and that we are available if you ever need anything." I had made my position on the matter quite clear the last time I had spoken to a sanctioned hero. Thanks but no thanks, I flew solo. "If that's everything, then we would appreciate if you passed by the PRT offices Downtown sometime this week for an official statement."

And suddenly official businesses reminded me of something very important. Something I could barely believe I was about to forget. “Speaking of which, how high is Lung’s bounty anyway? I could make do with an actual bullet proof vest.” I tapped my chest. Tonight had been cutting it rather close for my comfort.

I felt like Armsmaster was struggling not to retort inappropriately. “Bounties can only be paid after the subject in question has been tried and safely delivered to a holding facility.” For Lung, I would wager the Birdcage. “You’ll be able to check on the specifics with the PRT when you make your statement.”

“Sure!” I thanked him cheerfully. The PRT handled any bounties related to parahumans. And you had quite a few, with the way a cape was an individual, an icon. Mom and Dad can’t offer money to make a whole gang pay for shooting their little kid, but they can offer money for taking down the one cape that did it.

Either way, my future seemed far richer than it had this morning.

I tipped my cap in way of farewell and left. Inside I still felt either like squealing in glee or like piss myself in relief. My first cape capture, yay! Lung hadn’t cooked me alive, yippee-yay!


End file.
